Do you have a noticeable amount in any of the currencies? I'd say that as a rule of thumb, if you have under a beer/coffee worth of coins, it's not going to be worth trying to get it changed...
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GagravarrAug 26 '11 at 21:20

7

I just give them away as gifts to friends kids and such.
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GinaminAug 27 '11 at 0:16

7 Answers
7

Unless it is a significant amount, changing coins isn't worth it. The amounts are small and most banks and foreign exchanges won't accept coins generally.

My solution is to collect the left over foreign coins until I fly on an airline that participates in the Change for Good program and then donate them. British Airways and Virgin also have their own programs. It is a great concept as a small amount of foreign coins isn't very valuable to you, but when compounded across thousands of passengers a year, it can make a real difference.

If you don't want to wait until your next flight to donate, many charity shops (at least in the UK) accept foreign coins.

Coins are sometimes taken by currency exchanges if it helps round off a transaction to whole numbers. This mostly is true of currencies where coin denominations have a significant value in the currency being changed to, and whether a lot of transaction happens between those two currencies.
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Ankur Banerjee♦Aug 27 '11 at 11:28

It doesn't matter what country the coins are from or what country you're in. They'll sort them out and spend them to make the world better. Just gather up what you have and drop them off next time you see one.

You can also try selling them on eBay and get most of your money back that way too. Some of the coins may be worth $1 or more on face value for just one, such as the Japanese Y500 yen or the British £1. So a "handful" can be worth over $20 easily. Donate it on the principle of giving can be another option.

There are a number of companies in the UK who exchange foreign coins. We had a whole load of foreign coins that we collected with our school and then sent them an organisation called Cash4Coins - they exchanged all the coins and once we'd agreed we were happy with the amount the money was in the bank in less than an hour. My son, who is at university is collecting foreign coins with his student union for charity... Cash4Coins also will collect for free if the coins weigh over 5kg.